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How to build trust fast with skeptical customers. No, it's not an oxymoron. You can do it. Hey, we've all had skeptical buyers. You know the one, you know you can help, but for some reason, they don't see it. These are the people who, when you do turn them into a customer, you're doing them a huge favor because you're truly helping them. You see, you're doing them a service where when you help the skeptical customer become a skeptical customer, that's the topic and the show begins right now. You're listening to the Sales Hunter podcast with Mark Hunter, where the focus is to help you as a salesman sell with confidence and integrity. And now here's your host. Okay, you've got that skeptical customer, the skeptical buyer. Buyer, I can't say, really, customer, because they haven't bought you anything from you. I'm going to share with you five things you can do to turn the skeptical buyer into a customer. Number one, acknowledge their skepticism upfront. Don't run past it or ignore it. I find so many salespeople, I can be listening to calls, I can be participating in call, and I hear salespeople, they just kind of ignore it. I want to say compliment them on being skeptical. Compliment them, hey, I'm glad you're pushing back. I'm glad you're challenging because it really demonstrates that you want to make a good decision and that's good. Compliment them on it. Because chances are it's in their DNA that they're skeptical on anything and everything a customer brings to them. Now, the way you then begin to work past it is, is you. You compliment them and you begin to share a story of another customer who maybe said the same thing and the benefits they found by buying from you. Now, this is what's cool because you're not attacking them directly for their skepticism. You're entering in, you're bringing in a third party that they can relate to. And that is absolutely powerful because now it's a safe way for them to see that, okay, they can achieve what they're looking for. They are not being attacked by the salesperson. Two, focus on their risk, not the reward. Now, we know that customers buy for one of two reasons. It's either to, you know, mitigate a risk or to achieve a reward. Here's what I found. Customers will always pay more when is regarding a risk. And what I found is this. You want to help them understand this risk and you want to engage them in a conversation about what would happen if something went wrong. Now, this Is even with a reward, this actually works. Let me see. Why do we buy insurance? We buy homeowners insurance, we buy auto insurance, we buy life insurance because we want to protect ourselves and protect those around us from a catastrophic situation. And we hope we don't use the insurance, you know, the auto insurance, the homeowner's insurance, but we do know that we need it. You see, what I'm doing is I'm mitigating your risk. Now the same thing can be played out from a reward because you can sit there and ask the customer, what is it that you're really looking to achieve? Chances are your sale is one piece of a component of them achieving a reward. And again, you can come back and say, so what happens if you do not achieve that reward? What happens, what happens if we're not able to? And again, you're allowing them to answer the questions. I found this. Skeptical buyers cannot be confronted. But what you can do is you can share questions with them. And I'll get into more of that here in just a bit. Number three here. Use a testimonial from a person they respect. This is absolutely powerful. You can, you can send that to them in an email, send them a document, send them something or share with them or whatever it might be. But, but get, allow somebody else to share with them how much value they got from what it is that you sold them, the product or the service. Now what's really powerful is, of course, if you can get that person to call them up. So we'll say, we'll say that you're, you're dealing with a large company and you're dealing with a division that you haven't sold to before, and there's a skeptical buyer, maybe in another division, there's a person who they know and you can say, hey, would you mind calling them? Would you mind calling, would you mind reaching out to them using a testimony or personnel? Here, here's the challenge. This can come across as confrontation. So you have to be very cautious about when you put this up, when you put this in front of them. Okay, What I have found is this. I do not put a testimonial of this nature, person they respect directly in front of them. Until I begin to know that they're starting to make the move, they are starting to become, okay, they're let, they're less skeptical. Now what I'm doing is I'm trying to elevate, I'm trying to elevate them to where they are absolutely game on. Now, one of the easiest Ways. One of the best ways to do this is number four, and that's ask better questions than your competitors. Now, let me break this down. I find too many salespeople, what they do is they ask customers questions that the customer can't answer, but they can't answer. And they do that as a way for them to feel really good. Oh, I'm so special. I'm so good. I'm so smart. I asked you a question, but I knew the answer to it. That's, that's a game and customers hate that game. What you want to be able to do is you want to be able to ask the customer questions that they can't answer. And you can't answer answer because this is going to force a conversation. But here's what I found. The skeptical buyer has to overcome their skepticism on their own, on their own time frame, on their own accord. So if I can ask them a question that neither of us can answer and it creates a conversation, it is amazing at how now, as you begin to process through and figure out what the answer might be, the customer now comes around and says, you're right. I can see how this is working. I can see how. And what happens is the skeptical buyer then reaches their own conclusion. And this is absolutely key because what I found is this. Hesitant buyers, skeptical buyers, what they are, is they're more process driven. They are absolutely more process driven. So they want to be able to sort through things. This is why you have to have the conversation with them. Now here's why I say this is important. If you don't have the conversation with them, what's going to happen is they're going to wind up going out and doing their own research. The skeptical buyer wants to, will always do their own research. Unless you're sitting in the room with them on the call with them, the zoom call, the teams call, whatever it might be. And here's what happens when they start doing their own research. They wind up coming up with other options, other ideas. Your competitors are suddenly in the mix. You've got to be absolutely careful on the skeptical buyer. Now, I'm going to share with you again a couple more things here I want to share with you. But number five on this piss on, on this list is you've got to be prepared to walk away. Sometimes you've got to call the person's bluff. You've got to call their bluff. Now, there is some risk in this, but I'm going to share with you a quick story. I remember there was a customer I was Working with years ago and absolutely great. We put a great proposal in front of them, was all good, but the president, CEO of the company got a hold of it and thought the price was too high. He was very skeptical and he pushed back on me, pushed back on me. And I had to be very blunt with him. I said, you know, because again, I called out the issues that they had. In other words, they had some real risks. I had to call out the risks to them. And when I called out the risks to them, then he realized they had a problem and they needed me. But see, I was fully prepared to walk away. You have to at times be prepared to walk away. Okay, now let's cut to the chase here. There's nothing wrong with a skeptical buyer. They're great. They're absolutely fantastic. The only thing worse is a skeptical buyer that you don't know is a skeptical buyer. This is why it's absolutely important that you've got to ask them multiple times how they see your solution fitting into their business. You don't sit there and assume. When you take a skeptical buyer and line them up with an assumptive, focused salesperson, you've got a sale that's never going to happen. It is never, ever going to happen. You've got to make sure that you're continuously asking them how this is going to fit in. And what you're doing is you're tying it, you're tying it into the larger outcomes that they're looking for. And this is absolutely key. This is why early on, I got to understand how is it that what I'm selling to you is going to fit into your bigger picture. So what I'm doing is I'm asking you questions that have you sharing with me how this fits in. That's one of the easiest ways that I can really begin to understand as to whether or not the customer is skeptical. But again, you've got to ask. Never, never sit there and assume. Okay, I've shared with you how you can overcome a skeptical buyer. And, and, and, and, and I want you to put in place. And, and the number one thing that I want you to do right now is one, come up with some stories. What are some of the stories of other customers that you worked with? What are the names of other people who you can use? You've got to get that set up right now. You've got to have an inventory of those ready to go for you. Two, you've got to really understand your industry so well that you can have questions that you know what nobody's thinking about this. I don't have the answer to and they don't have the answer to and I got to be prepared to ask. That's a level of curiosity. That is an absolute level of curiosity. When you have those two pieces and you have the confidence, the confidence of selling with integrity it is amazing at how you're going to overcome the skeptical buyer. I want you to grab the book integrity first Selling. You know I came out with it a couple months ago. I want you to grab a copy of it. Hey my name is Mark Hunter the sales hunter. Two episodes a week, one like this where I do a deep dive really taking a single topic second is a subject matter expert. Leave me a review would you please leave me a review. We need more reviews whether it be on Spotify, Apple, Music however you listen to the podcast. I'm Mark Hunter the sales hunter. Great selling.